Have you ever thought to yourself, “what the frig am I doing with my life,” and not had a good answer? Ever wonder what you’re going to do with your new degree in sociology? Do you parents and other family members worry about this as well?
The whole notion of graduating from school, getting a job, getting married, and settling down after college is outdated, and we’re the first real generation where the lack of absolute direction is more common to all of us then ever before.
This is only strange, though, when you look at our situation through the lens of decades popular culture and traditional values. Global free trade and the internet has put the world at our fingertips; our parent’s generation hardly dreamed of trekking through South America with a best friend from Germany that they met in a video game, or doing a year of work in Singapore. The information economy that has replaced manufacturing and traditional labor jobs has given way to jobs where you’re looked at as a weirdo if you’re at the company for more than a few years.
Sure, you probably eventually want to settle down and act like boring adults and raise a family, but the gap in the number of years between now and then is far greater than your parents likely had.
I’ve recently embraced this idea as a manifesto of sorts - embracing the lack of direction, rather than fret over it. There was an op-ed piece recently that has really helped me validate what our generation is experiencing:
So to everyone who doesn’t know where they’re going or how to go about it, don’t worry - it’s par for the course these days. Don’t let your parents convince you otherwise that your lack of direction will be your downfall. Embrace it and live your life as it comes…there isn’t a better time in the world to get out there and get on with your odyssey.
